The Political Threat

The government is the greatest and most significant threat to the Innu tribe because of their decisions which might cause the original tribe to go extinct. One of the major changes that the government made was in the 1950’s, “the nomadic Innu were pressured into settling in fixed communities by the Canadian government” (Survival International). According to Colin Samson, he writes in his book A Way of Life That Does Not Exist: Canada and the Extinguishment of the innu that the government decided to do this because of two reasons. One, because the fur trading business collapsed. The fur trading business started in the 1500’s when the europeans first introduced it to the Innus. The second reason was because the government did not think that the Innus were productive enough, because hunting did not help the government economically in any way. Currently the government is handing out the original territory of nutshimit, the place where the Innu tribe goes in summer and winter to live like they used to, and express their beliefs. “the government hands out their land in mining concessions, floods the heart of their territory for hydro power schemes, and builds roads.” (Survival International) This quote clearly shows how the government is currently threatening the Innu tribe to become extinct. Because the land of the Innus is being taken away from them for the use of the government.

News from the Innu. (n.d.). Retrieved February 23, 2016, from http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/tribes?[tribe_id]=52

Survival International, an organization that fights for the rights of tribes and the perseverance of tribes around the world. They believe that to solve this issue, they must talk to the canadian government and make them question their decision to destroy the land of the Innu tribe. To me, it should be an honor to a government to have a tribe, and it should be the government’s responsible to keep the tribe alive. Like the environmental solution, this solution is very similar. The government is building power schemes and roads to make money, but doing it this way, they also destroy the land of the Innus. A solution would be to reinforce more laws favouring the tribes, such as keeping a certain amount of original land for the use of the original tribe only. Compared to economic, social or environmental threats, a political threat is solved differently, because it involves the persuasion of people and good argumentation. So, overall, reinforcing new laws favouring the tribal community to secure that they have some original land, would be a good compromise for both parts.